Research

As an Association exclusive member benefit, members can submit their thought-leadership content to be included on this page for their HR peers to access. This content includes white papers, ebooks, or links to your organization’s blog post or related articles. To help guide engagement and to provide some framework, a content calendar providing themes for content to submit monthly for 2017 is available: click here for the content calendar. This is a guide – we’ll accept content on all topics at any time throughout the year. To submit your content, please contact Scott Fuhr at scott.fuhr@sharedxpertise.com.

Executive Summary: Plan and prepare in a careful, thorough manner before taking action, or as a good friend in construction told me, measure twice, cut once. Easier said than done when we apply that same principle to a business process, and specifically, to the fast-paced world of recruitment.

The HRO Today Services and Technology Association finalized a research study conducted in regards to the key performance indicators used to evaluate the success of a company’s talent acquisition activities. This report provides a pulse-check on how recruitment strategy and sourcing plans impact hiring metrics—it tracks how recruiting metrics are being used, and reveals what indicators will impact attracting and hiring great talent. To plan, staff and budget a recruitment function, the only valid metrics are those which have been developed and tracked within one’s own organization over time, although comparisons help to ensure you have an industry benchmark. Members are encouraged to view this data as a simple comparison of their own performance against national averag­es.

Sample findings include: Nearly one-half of companies do not formally track where they get their candidates; the average cost per hire over time is changing due to the impact of Internet recruiting; predictive analysis is an upward trend, with the transportation/warehousing industry at the forefront; and much more data, across multiple industries.

Read conclusion of executive summary

Predicting the future of recruitment initiatives and candidate attraction and satisfaction is a difficult job. Research, industry benchmarks and comparisons are all additional tools to assist you in evaluating and planning for the future hiring success of your companies and/or customers! I hope you find these metrics and comparisons useful and utilize them to review and set your talent acquisition standards and practices.

Measure twice, hire once. If you’d like to join the Association to gain access to this research:click here.

The past two decades have changed the way modern society communicates and how we conduct business in a global economy. In today’s hyper-connected world, organizations have to move quickly and adapt to new trends at scale. It is now more vital than ever for companies to have the ability to move employees or relocate to entirely new locales in a timely and efficient manner. The world won’t wait, so it is crucial that all businesses have a strategic plan or partner to tackle this challenge when it arises. Innovation in workforce mobility is critical to overcoming this hurdle, and Graebel is certainly one of the leaders at the forefront of this revolution. Learn from highlights of Graebel’s 2017 summit on relocation. Read the article here for more

You want to push mobility forward for your company. But, amid significant evolutionary trends — including shorter assignments, global uncertainties, and a workforce craving international experience — where do you begin? Our blog series, “Transformative Insight for the World Ahead,” explores emerging challenges as you strive to leverage your program as a key differentiator for people on the move. Read the article here for more

As the workforce has evolved, so have the hiring strategies needed to place the right people in the right positions. Job boards and company career pages aren’t enough to get the job done anymore—not if you want to stand out from the crowd of employers competing for the most qualified candidates. More than ever before, the war for talent is on. And, the stakes are rising. If you want to win, you need to understand the rules of engagement. In this paper, we talk about sourcing, screening, and assessment best practices that will show you how to hire great people and cut recruiting waste in today’s competitive market. Download the white paper here for more

Your job as a recruiter is to cut through the visual clutter, seize the attention of your ideal candidates, and evoke a response. Personalization is the key to getting it done. Personalizing the candidate experience means delivering uniquely-tailored content based on the interests and preferences of the people you want to reach. It means creating human interactions rather than just impersonal processes. And, it means taking the time to research your prospects, so you can increase the odds of capturing their attention. Learn how to hire quality candidates faster with personalized candidate experiences. Download the white paper here for more

According to the Harvard Business Review, organizations spend over $720 million each year on employee engagement—which is projected to rise to over $1.5 billion per year—yet, employee engagement is at a record low. Just 30 percent of employees are currently considered engaged, according to Gallup—roughly the same percentage as when the firm first started measuring the topic about 20 years ago. What’s wrong with this picture? Why is increasing employee engagement so difficult? Find out now in this article from Dr. Bob Nelson. Read the article here for more

For HR organizations, moving their systems to the cloud is not a question of “if” but “when.” The upside is clear: vastly improved functionality, better data and analytics, and – perhaps most obviously – better user experience, including mobile access. The downside? It’s there, too. The cost of change and the lack of resources are real. But neither of these hurdles are new to HR. Recent research from ISG Insights™ indicates that more than 50 percent of enterprises will rely on subscription-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) and hybrid HR/HCM solutions as their primary HR system by the end of 2020. And, more than 75 percent indicate they’ll migrate at least one major HR function to SaaS by 2019. So, what does it take to build the business case for SaaS in HR as vendor management becomes increasingly complex? Find out in this study. Download the survey report here for more

If you find yourself struggling to compete for talent as a mid-sized organization, there is good news. It is possible to apply a forward-thinking approach without the deep pockets or resources of a global enterprise. Specifically, a total talent approach — the strategy based on integrating all talent, from employee recruitment to management of flexible workers and contingent workforce suppliers — is not only available, but often more quickly accessible to the smaller organization as compared to their larger corporate counterparts. The improvements in speed and agility can be crucial, particularly in evolving organizations with high-growth expectations. Download the white paper here for more

Talent matters to the success of an organisation, and talent acquisition professionals on the front lines are seeing the war for talent heating up. That’s because the war for talent has actually become a war for engagement, and talent pooling is a crucial way to improve engagement and the candidate experience. Today’s market requires talent acquisition professionals to build relationships with candidates far earlier in the process, so that candidates become immediately engaged and solid relationships are already in place when vacancies arise. Engaged candidates then move on to become engaged employees, and Allegis Global Solutions (AGS) has been on the cutting edge of talent pool development for their clients across EMEA and the globe. They have thought leaders with lots of key insights necessary to successfully create and use talent pools. Download the white paper here for more

Social sourcing means finding and attracting the best candidates using today’s social media platforms. But, there is a vast difference between an organisation that uses social media casually and one that uses it purposefully and strategically. Allegis Global Solutions has worked extensively with employers in APAC markets to create and implement social sourcing programmes. These markets pose special recruitment challenges: language and cultural differences, legal and national differences, and a wide disparity in technological literacy and sophistication. As organisations seek the best possible talent in this complex and ever-changing environment, social sourcing is emerging as a critical tool. Discover our lessons learned from the front lines – our 10 best practices for social sourcing in APAC. Download the white paper here for more

Smart businesses recognize that the digital age requires a brand-new technology strategy, and they’re clamoring for people to build the platforms, interfaces, and infrastructure to get it done. They also need experts in cloud computing, automation, data, mobility, and social technologies to remain competitive in today’s business environment. That has enormous implications for the IT labor market and learn more in this hiring manager’s guide to the IT market. Download the white paper here for more

Smart businesses recognize that the digital age requires a brand-new technology strategy, and they’re clamoring for people to build the platforms, interfaces, and infrastructure to get it done. They also need experts in cloud computing, automation, data, mobility, and social technologies to remain competitive in today’s business environment. That has enormous implications for the IT labor market and learn more in this hiring manager’s guide to the IT market. Download the white paper here for more

When the subject of diversity comes up in a board meeting, the discussion usually centers on two questions: How do we get results and what is the return on investment? We all agree that diversity is important, but what impact does it have on employee productivity, cultural engagement, and profitability? And how can we create a diversity program that delivers high-impact results? Download the white paper here for more

If your organization is like most companies, you likely face significant challenges finding qualified talent with critical skills. An inability to secure talent can delay initiatives, hinder growth, reduce the quality of products and services and create a profound drag on profitability. One key issue is driving these challenges: the way people work is changing. Younger workers have new needs and values. Older workers are retiring in large numbers, but they still want to continue to put their skills to use. As a result, more professionals, both young and old, are embracing flexible work as a matter of choice. They are choosing to work as contractors, contingent workers or freelancers. Meanwhile, companies are changing more quickly with the advance of digitization and new work models. Demand for certain skills is high, supply is limited and the resulting talent scarcity requires a new approach to securing and managing talent. To stay competitive, many organizations will need to remove the boundaries that have traditionally separated the engagement of flexible workers and the hiring of employees. Download the white paper here for more

When it comes to talent, the headlines are true: demand is outstripping supply. That means you have to compete for scarce skills, whether you are a global enterprise with 10,000 workers or a regional business with 500. As a result, companies of all sizes and stages of business evolution are rethinking their approaches to acquiring critical talent — including contingent workers, freelancers,
contractors and permanent employees alike. One strategy that is gaining attention among certain companies is a variation of the Managed Services Program (MSP). For organizations that fit certain profiles in size, industry and internal structure, this model provides a dedicated service team, often located onsite, combined with total talent coverage that can help employers better compete in a changing talent landscape. Download the white paper here for more

In the context of the contingent and contractor workforce, a more accurate term for the employer brand concept is “contingent talent brand.” Like the employer brand, the contingent talent brand embraces the fundamentals of branding best practices, but it also accounts for the unique needs of the variable workforce. Download the white paper here for more

While all businesses realize the importance of providing outstanding customer service, few of them recognize that great customer service starts with your employees. Your employees are your most important customers. If you treat them right, they will become your biggest advocates, and that’s what you should aim for. By reviewing this guide you’ll learn how to create an unmatched employee experience in your organization and see which companies are leading the way in creating a great employee experience. Download the guide here for more

When you type employee engagement (EE) in Google, in less than a second it returns over 20 million results. Clearly it’s a widely discussed subject, and it’s been such for years. However, not much has been done to enhance it; the EE index is still poor. One of the reasons might be that companies are not convinced if boosting EE will result in improved business performance. If you are one of the nonbelievers, then read this white paper to get rid of your doubts and join the light side of the Force. Download the white paper here for more

Corporate Responsibility(CR) Magazine, in conjunction with Cielo, announced the findings of the publication’s annual corporate reputation survey. The findings showed that 86-percent of American females would not join a company with a bad reputation, compared to only 67-percent of American males. For more results that impact your organization, download the full report here.

New Research Reveals U.S. Workers Have Low Perceptions of Overall Employment Well-Being, Especially Among Minorities, the Young and Lowest Income.

While overall U.S. employment optimism increased between the third and fourth quarters of 2014, a recent survey conducted by HRO Today Magazine and sponsored by Yoh Recruitment Process Outsourcing found a sharp decline in overall job security, offsetting optimism about promotions, raises and trust in company leadership. The survey, titled The Employee Well Being Study, measured perceived U.S. employment security during the third and fourth quarters of 2014. Download The Employee Well Being Study.

The results have just been released in a report called “How to Launch a Successful Employer Brand: Building on the Practices of Top Employer Brands”, which analyzes practices that distinguish Top Employer Brands from Other Brands. Hudson RPO and HRO Today magazine surveyed 324 senior-level HR executives on employer branding strategy and practices. The results were released in July 2014 in a report called “How to Launch a Successful Employer Brand: Building on the Practices of Top Employer Brands,” which analyzes practices that distinguish Top Employer Brands from Other Brands. The report also provides practical recommendations on implementing an employer branding strategy and program to engage quality candidates and improve employee retention. Register on the right to receive your complimentary copy. Download the How to Launch a Successful Employer Brand: Building on the Practices of Top Employer Brands report

The Hiring for Success report (co-published by Hudson RPO and the HRO Today Institute) defines quality in the workplace; the benefits of measuring quality of hire; the challenges of collecting data; and how to improve hiring processes. It also includes six strategies for improving quality of hire plus a case study demonstrating the commercial value of committing to a quality of hire program. The report findings are based on a survey of nearly 300 HR professionals worldwide. A snapshot of significant report insights include:

85% of companies that measure quality of hire believe doing so has a positive impact on hiring quality; nearly half believe there is a significant impact (improvement of more than 25%).

How can I help reduce unplanned attrition, improve the number of top grade performers in the business, decrease the time it takes a new hire to become productive or assist in improving the diversity of the workforce?